Broadband Adoption Growth Rate Slows in 3Q14

IPv6 adoption continues, and global average connection speed to the Internet now stands at 4.5 Mbps.

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The third quarter State of the Internet (SOTI) report from Akamai is now out, once again showing Internet adoption growth. While there is now more broadband Internet penetration around the world, the growth rate has slowed and connection speeds also reportedly declined during the third quarter.

Overall, David Belson, senior director of Industry and Data Intelligence and editor of the Akamai State of the Internet report, said that there were no major surprises in the 3Q14 SOTI report.

"Mixed quarterly changes, which we see from time to time, but the yearly changes are still generally positive, which is ultimately the trend that we want to see – showing that things are improving over the long term," Belson told Enterprise Networking Planet.

During the third quarter of 2014, the global broadband adoption rate for connections of 4 Mbps or greater hit 60 percent of all connections, for a 12 percent year-over-year growth rate. Though the overall trend is positive, the SOTI report notes that the yearly growth rate has continued to decline over the last several quarters.

"Not totally sure why the broadband adoption growth rate has declined over the last few quarters, but I suspect that some of it may be related to the challenge of sustaining continued aggressive rates of growth on top of larger and larger broadband adoption rates," Belson said.

Along with the broadband adoption growth has come continued growth in Internet connection speeds. During the third quarter, Akamai reported that the global average connection was 4.5 Mbps, a 25 percent year over year gain but a 2.8 percent decline from the second quarter figures. The average peak connection speed had a similar trend, coming in at 24.8 Mbps, which is a 38 percent year-over-year gain but a 2.3 percent quarterly decline.

Looking inside the U.S., the great state of Delaware had the top average connection speed in the nation, coming in at 17.4 Mbps for a 37 percent year-over-year gain. Delaware also led the list for the average peak connection speed, coming in at 75.7 Mbps for a 57 percent yearly gain.

IPv6

Belgium has the highest traffic percentage of IPv6, coming in at 27 percent for the quarter for a 45 percent quarter-over-quarter gain. Germany ranked second at 11 percent IPv6 traffic in 3Q14, with 87 percent quarterly growth.

The U.S ranked third for IPv6 traffic with 9.5 percent of connections during 3Q14 and a 40 percent quarterly gain. Leading the way for IPv6 usage within the U.S are the major carriers.

56 percent of Verizon Wireless traffic in 3Q14 came in over IPv6. Comcast had 19 percent, AT&T 15 percent and Time Warner Cable had 8.89 percent of its traffic provided by IPv6.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Enterprise Networking Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.